Today officially marks one year since I began writing this blog. It has been quite a year!
I started it to do some writing and work the creative side of my brain. Writing is a significant, but sometimes uneven, part of what I do in my professional life. I thought having a blog that I was working on would be a valuable way to learn to write quickly and accurately. I’m getting pretty good at writing quickly (no writers block!) but I still have some work to do writing accurately.
This year I focused mostly on the IL-2 series but I also added content from Rise of Flight, DCS and War Thunder from time to time. I briefly wrote about Battlefield 1 and the air combat contained in that series but once the game came out I decided against doing any more content in that area – its a well covered game and I didn’t really have anything else to add to the wealth of content already out there.
DCS continues to be intriguing to me and I’ve thought about purchasing one of the more complicated modules. The M-2000C by RAZBAM sounds pretty interesting as does the F-5E by Belsimtek and the AJS-37 Viggen by Leatherneck Studios… But it does mean learning a whole new sim and there just isn’t enough time in the day. Despite this, I’m going to continue to periodically cover developments in the DCS area as its a vibrant community with a growing and successful third party development structure that is certainly adding diversity to the sim.
IL-2 holds my interest completely with its accessible aircraft, variety of mission operations, small but growing multiplayer experience, and the excitement of an almost continuous stream of new content. IL-2: Battle of Kuban is looking like a landmark moment for the series as it caps three Eastern Front releases and transitions into the Pacific theater and the Battle of Midway in 2018.
Rise of Flight continues to be an interesting side story for me as well. A mature sim with a related game engine to the new generation IL-2 makes it easy to jump back and forth and sometimes a swirling dogfight is just too much fun to pass up.
So the future looks interesting and there is more to come!
Stormbirds 
Your website continues to be one I frequently read, almost daily now, for information mostly on the IL-2 series of BoX. Nice, concise articles and lots of variety.
Take a look at https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/support/faq/505/ for the primary reason why DCSW is such an enigma; if you can accept that such across-the-board FM dissimilarities will interfere with the relative performance of the aircraft, then invest your cash in some of the elaborate, intensively developed modules.
ED is slowly reducing the disparities within their product line, however, the MiG-29 does not perform like its stablemate, the SU-27. What the independents do is their purview only, so that is really a mixed bag. ‘Diversity’ is such an interesting word.
For this reason alone, I am no longer spending any money there. But that’s just me.
However, if you are up to the task of learning and evaluating a true hardcore flight simulation, then you just have to give BMS 4.33 a whirl. It will set you back $3.49 on the Steam platform, or $10 on GoG. Once you install the base game (use the smallest installation size possible. BMS just requires it be installed; it will not use that install for anything except verification that you do, indeed, own Falcon 4.0 each time you startup. I put it on a USB stick and leave it available for F4 to look at upon starting.)
Then register on the BMS website and download their latest Mod/Patch, which is presently 4.33 U3. It is a simple, one-step installation, and voila’, you have the best simulation on the planet loaded on your PC. Given that it is a 1998 title, the graphics, although much improved and getting better daily, are its weakest point.
Take a look at this multiplayer mission, and see if you agree that BMS understands fidelity and immersion:
You will not find that kind of multiplayer flying with any other simulator. If that doesn’t interest you, the F4 is not for you.
Congrats, again,m on keeping Stormbirds alive and fresh; I really enjoy your take on this genre.
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Many thanks for the positive comments Pixel! I appreciate you continuing to inform me about BMS. I do forget sometimes but clearly it has its niche within the community. Quite impressive that multiplayer gameplay!
My DCS experience may be frustrated by me trying to make the MiG-29 my aircraft and it not being at the same level as other types. I should probably spend some more time with the F-15 or the A-10 or the Su27. And as always consider looking into BMS too!
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I am not sure if you made your choice on what modules to go Sham. I have them all and they all have something about them. If you don’t mind me suggesting one go first with the Tiger. It’s an easy module, it’s weapon system user friendly and you can get some multiplayer action into few 3rd gen fighter server where you don’t have to worries about the BVR stuff. Tiger vs Fishbed action are a blast where all the action are within visual range. It’s a good starting point for online fun where you can have a normal learning curve without getting kill all the time by superior jets and BVR pro.
My 2 cent
o7
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It’ll take me a while to make any decisions and I’ll probably wait for a good sale price. But I will keep the Tiger in mind!
Do you have the Nevada map? How do you like it?
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I do like it yes it is a beautiful map, but so far it lack a proper populated server for 3rd Gen planes. In all honesty I am not that much interested into the modern fighter and the BVR stuff and that is what you find with this map, although it is still early to say the map is still on Alpha. I use it for single player like the Maple Flag or Red Flag single player campaign. I am in process of doing the F5-E Aggressor Campaign very nice.
If you make the move I can sit down with you and get you sorted out. Fast low flight over the mountain and fighting the Fishbed in canopy to canopy scissors it’s very satisfying.
https://tlaschuk.github.io/home
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Congrats good sir! May your site fly forever like a game on Godmode… and not crash and burn, like my wife playing a game with Godmode. 😀
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Lighting your own aircraft on fire while in invulnerable mode is a huge accomplishment! 😀
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